Man dedicated life to Lutheran church

Rev. Robert J. Furreboe ~ 1933-2008

The Rev. Robert J. Furreboe earned degrees in history and economics, fully intending to build a career in banking. But when his application was accepted into the seminary, he followed the call and never looked back.

Rev. Furreboe devoted his life to ministry within the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. He served 18 years as pastor at St. Mark Lutheran Church in Mount Prospect, before serving the larger church in his retirement.

He died on Easter Sunday, March 23, after a brief battle with pancreatic cancer. The former Arlington Heights resident was 76.

Rev. Furreboe served at St. Mark from 1981 to 1999, during which he encouraged his congregation to grow spiritually and within the confines of their church campus.

Nancy Snell of Mount Prospect was president of the congregation and parish administrator during Rev. Furreboe's years as senior pastor. She pointed to the partnership he fostered between St. Mark members and a new faith community, Good Shepherd Congregation of Naperville, when they were trying to build their church.

"We were mission partners, offering them prayer and financial support," Snell says.

Later, Rev. Furreboe spearheaded a $1.3 million project to renovate and build onto the church facility, that included extending the narthex, adding a choir room, nursery and other meeting rooms -- and an elevator, making it handicapped accessible.

When Rev. Furreboe retired in 1999, he continued to serve the church, fostering stewardship and financial support for the Lutheran Social Services of Illinois.

His most recent ministry started within the last two years, when he was asked to serve on the Interfaith Airport Chaplaincy Committee, serving as one of the chaplains at O'Hare International Airport.

Rev. Furreboe grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., the son of Norwegian immigrant parents who did not attend church. It was his involvement with the Boy Scouts, based at Trinity Lutheran Church in Brooklyn that gave him his first experience with a faith community.

As a young adult, Rev. Furreboe worked his way through Wagner College by working at Kings County Trust Co. on Staten Island. He met a summer employee there, Edna Lawson, whom he married before accepting his first call to a parish.

In 1956 he enrolled at the only Evangelical Lutheran seminary in the country, which took him to St. Paul, Minn. and away from the East Coast for good.

Family members say, however, some of his lasting friends from his boyhood in New York, were members of his original Boy Scout troop, and Trinity Lutheran Church.

Rev. Furreboe is survived by his wife of 47 years, Edna, as well as his children Robert of Arlington Heights, Elizabeth (Greg Torkelson) of Des Plaines, and James (Tammy) Furreboe of Bartlett, and four grandchildren.

Visitation will take place from 4 to 9 p.m. today at Friedrich's Funeral Home, 320 W. Central Road, Mount Prospect, before an 11 a.m. funeral service Saturday at Our Savior's Lutheran Church, 1234 N. Arlington Heights Road in Arlington Heights.